Press Summaries

The EESC: 

• recommends adopting the Circular Economy Act (CEA) as a fully-fledged Act to signal the EU’s commitment to systemic change. It calls for a clear mapping of all related legislation, strategies and action plans to ensure a coherent framework for the circular transition.
• considers incentives for well-functioning secondary raw material markets and circular business models, including reuse, repair and remanufacturing, to be at the heart of the Act. It also calls for stronger public procurement, reform of extended producer responsibility schemes, improved material traceability, wider use of eco-design and better working conditions. Traceability, certification, harmonised labelling and technical standards are seen as essential to building market confidence and scaling up circular solutions.
• recommends establishing a regularly updated repository of circular economy good practices through the European Circular Economy Stakeholders Platform (ECESP), linked to indicators and monitoring frameworks. It stresses the importance of formally recognising transition brokers and ensuring that civil society, cooperatives and social enterprises are active partners in a fair and inclusive circular transition. The Committee also highlights the strategic role of the ECESP in identifying barriers and accelerating implementation.

The EESC:

• considers that a regulation as the legal instrument for the DNA is the appropriate choice for the purposes of removing internal market barriers and ensuring uniform rules;
• calls for a clear allocation of competences between the Office for Digital Networks (ODN), the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC), the Radio Spectrum Policy Body (RSPB) and the national regulatory authorities (NRAs), avoiding overlaps and institutional duplication; 

The EESC:

• recognises the important transport acquis and emphasises that a transparent and predictable transport regulatory framework is key to EU competitiveness, while guaranteeing high standards for workers, customers and social rights. These obligations must also apply to non-EU entities operating in the single market. Competitiveness, social rights and environmental protection must remain central to the European model;

The EESC:

• calls on the European Commission to develop Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the horizontal cross-cutting implementation of the values and principles of the New European Bauhaus (NEB) in new and revised EU policies and regulatory acts, and underlines the inseparability of the NEB and the Affordable Housing policies as well as the need for the next NEB implementation step to focus on investment in sustainable, affordable and quality housing.

In the opinion, the EESC:   

•  considers that the EU has a timely opportunity to accelerate the transition towards a circular bioeconomy, combining resource efficiency, sustainable biomass use and industrial competitiveness, building on upcoming legislative initiatives such as the Circular Economy Act and the EU Bioeconomy Strategy; 
• stresses that efficient use of resources requires applying the waste hierarchy and lifecycle thinking, prioritising prevention, reuse and material efficiency, while recognising both technical and biological circular pathways to achieve the best environmental outcomes; 
•  highlights the potential of nature-based biodegradable materials to reduce pollution, support regional economies and strengthen EU competitiveness, while calling for greater regulatory coherence—particularly in the implementation of packaging legislation—to avoid barriers and enable innovation.

The full text of the opinion is available here.  

In the opinion, the EESC:   

• highlights that Europe faces increasing pressure as a resource-constrained and import-dependent continent, and stresses the need to strengthen the European Green Deal and Sustainable Development Goals, ensuring coherence with circular economy, climate and biodiversity objectives to support a sustainable and competitive bioeconomy within planetary boundaries; 
• recalls that EU leadership in the bioeconomy requires clear, strict and enforceable principles on the sourcing and use of biomass, applied across supply chains and equally to domestic and imported materials, while addressing unfair competition from underpriced fossil-based resources; 
• reminds that the bioeconomy must fully respect the waste hierarchy by prioritising the reduction of resource use, ensuring that biomass is used efficiently and sustainably, and avoiding short-term applications that do not contribute to circularity.

The EESC:

• calls for structured engagement with civil societyin the roll-out ofall three facilities. Sustainable and credible reforms require permanent, active and institutionalised roles for the social partners and civil society organisations, alongside national authorities, to secure legitimacy, public trust and societal ownership of these reforms.

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The EESC:

• Stresses the need for structured, permanent involvement of organised civil society to ensure effective cooperation and accountability;

• Believes that reforms on access to finance, simplified procedures, digitalisation and connectivity targeting micro, small, medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) are necessary to unlock the potential of the private sector. 

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The EESC:

• stresses that military mobility is vital for EU deterrence and defence, particularly for frontline and transit Member States on the EU’s eastern flank and calls for rapid reinforcement of these regions as a top priority in implementing the Regulation. To achieve this goal,  simplification and harmonisation of logistics, customs, and transport rules are needed without undermining workers’ rights, working conditions and safety.